Exploring the evolution of land tenure and land use change in Panama: Linking land policy with development outcomes

- Land policy in Panama is the result of post colonial land tenure legacies.
- Land policy in Panama responds to short-term development outcomes.
- Land policy in Panama is influenced by a broad political economic context.
- Land use policy and ensuing land use change result in unequal local impacts.

In this paper I discuss the linkages between land use management and land use change, as well as the impacts of land use policies at the local level. Specifically, I suggest the current land tenure regime in Panama is the outcome of a path-dependent process that includes a Spanish legacy of land tenure institutions and beliefs, a policy-making process that responds to immediate or short-term development outcomes, and the broader political economic context. First, I introduce theoretical perspectives on land policy and development. These are followed by a narrative of the evolution of land tenure in Panama, in the context of develoment processes and land policies in Latin America. In the final section, with the case of lifestyle migration to Bocas del Toro, Panama, I illustrate how the pathways between land management and land use, in the context of political economic development drivers and outcomes, have significant local outcomes.